Author's Note: Tesla time! I own nothing of Sanctuary or its characters. My words, however, are my own. Thanks to MajorSam for her beta. Enjoy! AND PLEASE REVIEW! I desperately need feedback! (Needy much?) :)
The Shadow Men
Chapter 4: Revelations
Nikola Tesla sat in the wing chair of Helen Magnus' office with his hands clasped, index fingers pointed to the sky, and his face in rapt contemplation.
"Blood work? Physiological tests?" he demanded.
"All normal," Helen answered, leaning against the front of her desk, her navy blue skirt and jacket perfectly pressed. Her long, dark hair was pulled back with a silver clasp.
"Neurological exams?"
Will Zimmerman slumped on the couch looking discouraged, head resting on his hand.
"Nothing."
"Interviews with other inmates?" Tesla queried.
"Residents," Magnus corrected him.
"Whatever. Well?"
She shook her head. "No one has seen or felt anything abnormal. Well, anything that shouldn't be here, that is," she clarified.
"Hmmm…," Tesla murmured. "What about damage to the optical nerve? Glaucoma? Some other kind of eye disease? Maybe he's literally seeing things?"
Helen shook her head again. "His eyes are fine. There are no anomalies of any kind."
Tesla paused, thinking. "Well, he is Johnny. Perhaps he's simply insane?" Nikola looked up and grinned, his eyes twinkling.
Helen sighed.
"No," Will answered. "I don't believe that. I worked with him before the onset of this and again now. He's not delusional. Not yet," he added quietly.
"Then what about already possessed? Maybe there was more than one abnormal hitchhiking a ride aboard John before we even started the drug therapy? Hell, maybe there were several? Did you think of that?" Tesla looked at Helen.
"Yes, we thought of that," she replied, shifting her weight, crossing her arms and legs. "He's not possessed, Nikola. I know it. Will agrees."
"No offense, Helen, but you were never very good at spotting Jack in John. You had a bit of a, shall we say, blind spot in that regard?"
Helen shot him a searing look. Nikola shrugged and turned to Will.
"You don't believe he's possessed either, William?"
Will shook his head.
Tesla sighed. "So, you've ruled out the obvious. What's left?" he asked, arms open wide in question, the sleeves of his crisp, white shirt riding up his wrists.
Helen stared at him. "The drug. The drug we created to prevent abnormals from latching onto John during teleportation. The shadow he's seeing…"
"He's still seeing it a week after the incident with Heinrich? He's still the only one who has seen it?" Nikola interrupted.
"Yes," Helen replied. "He's afraid it's a creature stalking him, wanting to possess him. I'm fearful of that as well. I'm worried, Nikola, that the drug is starting to fail and is now attracting creatures or a creature to him during his teleportations."
Nikola nodded his head, considered her theory, and then arrived at a conclusion. "Well that's ridiculous. It's obviously not the drug," he announced.
Will and Helen both looked at him. "Why?" they asked simultaneously.
"Because I created it, and the things I create work."
Magnus laughed derisively. Will shook his head in disbelief.
"I'm not joking here, kids. We tested the drug, Helen, you and I. It worked. I have no reason to believe its efficacy should deteriorate over time. Nothing in our tests indicated that."
"No, but then again no one has ever used this drug except for John. It's not like we have a significant data set to rely on, Nikola. Really," Helen shot back.
"Fine," Tesla agreed. "Let's pretend, just for a moment, that you're right, preposterous though it might be, that the drug has lost its effectiveness…and I'm seriously stretching my imagination here…."
Helen rolled her eyes.
"What's your approach? Last time we tested it using the electromagnetic frequencies emitted by the creature to see if they affected John's cellular structure. Are you suggesting we do the same again?"
"Not exactly," Will mumbled looking warily at Magnus.
The tension in the room ratcheted up a notch.
"Okay, what is it you two aren't telling me?" Tesla demanded, pointing his finger at Will then Helen.
"You still have the energy creature?" Helen inquired.
Nikola dipped his head. "I do, although I haven't learned a damned thing from it. Kind of a bad trade on my part. In that regard it's utterly like John. All bluster and no substance. Why?"
"Because I want to release it, in a test environment with John, to see if it can reattach itself to him physically," she answered.
Nikola paused for a moment and then laughed out loud, his head thrown back in the air, hands clapping. "Oh, Helen, that is rich. And here I thought I was the one who detested John! You're supposed to be in love with him. Things not going well between you two?" he joked.
"She's serious," Will remarked, looking grim.
Tesla whipped his head around and stared at Helen. "You're serious?" he repeated.
She clenched the desk, her knuckles white. "I can't think of any other way to be completely, one hundred percent sure a creature is not trying to repossess him, turn him back into…a monster."
Tesla stood up and walked over to Magnus, flinging his dark jacket behind his back and placing his hands on his hips, his face grave.
"And I can think of at least a dozen, Helen. What the hell are you thinking?"
He stood right in front of her, staring into her wide, blue eyes. He could see it clear as day. He didn't need her to answer. Helen Magnus was scared. Terrified, in fact. Frightened beyond imagining that John was on the verge of slipping back into Jack, if he hadn't done so already, and she'd do anything to stop it.
Nikola sighed, reached out, and put a hand on her arm. "That's one approach, Helen," he suggested softly. "Why don't we try a few others first, shall we? You always had a tendency to go for broke. It's part of your charm. But really, there's no need to be quite so drastic out of the gate, don't you agree?"
Will watched as Tesla talked Magnus down from the ledge. She was so scared, so frightened that she might lose the man she loved, she was willing to risk losing the man she loved to prevent it.
Helen nodded.
"Good," Nikola smiled, shooting a quick, understanding glance toward Will.
"Like it or not, I think it's time I say hello to Johnny."
Helen led them to a secured section of rooms on the second floor of the Sanctuary. Not quite prison cells, but not exactly guest quarters either. The area could only be accessed with a pass card, and the rooms, six of them, were locked with individual keypads.
Tesla turned to Will and asked, "He's still under lock and key?"
Will nodded. "Magnus insisted."
"Interesting," Nikola said to himself, eyeing Helen a bit closer as she walked a few steps ahead of them. "Nothing like attempted murder to put a strain on a relationship."
Magnus knocked on the door, heard a soft, "Come in," and then punched in the key code. When she opened it, she found John stretched out on the bed, hands folded behind his head, talking to Kate Freelander who was sitting in a chair beside him, her jean clad legs resting on the edge of the mattress.
Druitt glanced at Helen, a forlorn look in his eye, then turned to Tesla and quickly smiled. "Well, well, Nikola Tesla. I see the Calvary has arrived. Tell me Nikola, did you enjoy your stay in the Magic Kingdom?"
"John…" Helen warned.
Nikola flipped his coat back and put a hand on his hip, wrapping his other hand around John's mahogany bed post.
"Oh, who doesn't enjoy being teleported and tied up in the world's most excruciating amusement park ride for 72 hours. Let's just say that whenever I hear, 'It's A Small World,' and I hear it often in my nightmares now, I think of you."
Druitt laughed. "Serves you right old boy for putting Helen in harm's way with that vampire Kulkukan. To think you had the nerve to lure her there under false pretenses…"
"Gentlemen!" Magnus interrupted. "We can discuss what happened in Guatemala later. Right now, Nikola is here to help." She turned and looked at Kate, a serious expression on her face. "And while you two get reacquainted, I'd like a word with Kate. Can you join me outside for a moment please?"
"Sure." Kate responded warily. She turned to Druitt and patted him on the knee. "Hang in there, Johnny. I'll come check on you later. Maybe I'll even let you try and win back the money you lost in our poker game," she winked.
"Always a pleasure losing my hard earned money to you, Miss Freelander," John waved goodbye.
Kate followed Helen out into the hallway. When the door closed, Helen turned.
"What the hell were you thinking being alone in there with him?" Helen asked, hands on her hips, her voice scolding.
"He's not going to hurt me, Doc. He's not going to hurt anyone," Kate countered. Yeah, the boss had told her she didn't want anyone being alone with Druitt until they knew what was going on, but damn it! It was like he had the plague or something. It just wasn't right, and it wasn't helping him to get any better, that was for sure.
"He hurt Henry, and I'll be damned if I let him touch another member of my staff. Your safety is MY responsibility!"
"Biggie is watching!" Kate threw her hands up in the air pointing at a security camera in the corner of the hall. "The whole place is monitored 24/7. If anything happened, which it's not, he'd be right here to help."
"And he would be too late!" Helen yelled.
Kate stepped back, folded her arms across her chest, and stared at Magnus. "It was an accident, what happened. Even Hank believes that. Something is happening to John. He's not possessed, he's not insane, and he's NOT the Ripper, no matter what you think!"
Helen jerked her head up at that.
"He's seeing something we can't see. Why? I don't have a clue. But you of all people should believe in him. You're supposed to love him, for God's sake! And hey, I've never been in love, so I can't talk, but I thought when someone loved someone they tried to help them work through their problems, not lock them up in a room and forget about them."
Magnus' eyes flashed with anger.
"What do you think I've been doing this past week, Kate? Twiddling my thumbs? No! I've been running every test imaginable to find out what's wrong with him!" she shouted.
"Exactly!" Kate yelled back.
Magnus drew up at that, confused.
"What do you mean?"
Kate took a deep breath. "You're so busy running tests to prove that something's wrong. Why does anything have to be wrong with him? John's unique, right? He's like nobody else, right? Nobody except for maybe…." she hesitated, "Ashley."
Helen flinched at her dead daughter's name.
"Maybe his ability makes him the only one that can see…whatever it is that he's seeing, because somehow it operates on his plane? You're so scared that whatever is happening to him is going to turn him into a monster, has turned him into a monster, that he's going insane just worrying about it. What if what he's seeing isn't harmful? What if it just wants to talk? What if John's the only one it can talk to?"
Helen paused at that. Was Kate right? The moment she saw John standing over Henry, knife in hand, she had assumed the worst, assumed that the monster that had stolen him away from her a century ago was back. Was she trying to prove his innocence or prove his guilt?
Before she could answer herself, a crash erupted from John's room. Helen rushed to the door, punched in the code, and yanked it open. She raced in, Kate on her heels.
John cowered in the corner, hands clawing the wall behind him. His eyes were wild, his face full of fear. The end table and lamp by his bedside lay broken on the floor. Will was bent down, talking to him, trying to calm him. John pointed toward the other side of the room, yelling, "Don't you see it? Can't you see it?"
Magnus turned. They all did. There was nothing there.
"Nikola, what happened?"
"We were talking and then he just…" Tesla shrugged, turning to look in the direction that John was staring.
"Can you sense anything? Anything at all?" she asked. Nikola could hear the desperation in Helen's voice.
He shook his head. "No. Nothing."
Magnus walked over to John and bent down next to Will.
"I can't get him to respond to me, Magnus." Then Will leaned over and whispered in her ear so that only she could hear him. "Magnus, if he's not insane, he's going to get there soon. We have to do something."
Magnus looked at her protégé and nodded, then turned back to her lover. She reached her hand out and gently laid it on his leg. He started at her touch, but wouldn't tear his eyes away from whatever monster he saw or thought he saw.
"John? Can you hear me? It's Helen," she said softly.
Her voice, her name, brought him back to himself. He tilted his head to look at her, the fear in his face diminishing.
"Helen?"
"Yes," she smiled.
"Help me….Please."
John's voice cracked. He closed his eyes and sank against the wall, and Helen's heart sank with him.
Nikola Tesla flipped through the chart in his hand, shaking his head in disgust. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing!" he rumbled, voice raised, tossing the papers onto Helen's desk.
"We've run every diagnostic test on John we can think of. We've ruled out Pareidolia, Hypnagogia, the drug, the environment, etcetera, etcetera," Tesla said ticking the possibilities off on his fingers one by one. He pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Helen, there's nothing there. I'm afraid he's simply…"
"John is not delusional! Or insane. Or whatever other word you were going to use, Nikola. We have to try my idea. The only way we can know with any certainty that the drug is working properly is to set the energy creature free in a controlled environment where we can…"
Tesla threw his hands up into the air. "We can what? Infect John again? Your Sanctuary? You enjoyed having Jack the Ripper around so much you want him back?"
Helen wanted to smack him. "Of course not! I'm only suggesting…."
"I've got another idea," said a female voice from across the room.
Magnus and Tesla turned to see Kate Freelander standing in the doorway, the Big Guy by her side. Tesla folded his arms across his chest and sneered. "What could Beauty and the Beast come up with that great minds haven't already thought of?"
Kate turned to Biggie. "Come on, Big Guy, let's show 'em." They walked into Magnus' office, and Biggie handed Helen a stack of DVDs.
"Operational Paranormal?" she asked, bewildered.
"This one," Biggie said, tapping the back of the DVD case. "Episode 18."
Magnus turned the case over and read the description, then looked up at him and down at Kate. "The Shadow Men?" She frowned. "You can't be serious."
"Shadow Men are dark, humanoid figures that are mostly seen in peripheral vision. That's exactly what's happening to Johnny. This episode is exactly what he's seeing!" Kate argued.
Tesla laughed.
"Kate," Magnus said indulgently. "I know you want to help John, but these Shadow People, Men, Folk, whatever you want to call them are just popular paranormal mythology not…," she glanced down at the episode description and quoted it, "Ghosts, aliens, time travelers, or possibly interdimensional beings."
Tesla was holding his stomach, cackling behind them.
"This phenomenon is easily explained by overactive imaginations and neurological science," Magnus concluded.
"Really?" Kate countered, tilting her head. "Then what explains what Johnny's seeing? Because it looks to me like you guys haven't figured that out yet."
Nikola stopped laughing.
"Look, boss, you may think this is utter crap, and maybe it is, but before you go and zap Johnny with the energy creature, can you at least give it a shot?"
"I don't believe in ghosts, Kate," Magnus replied, stone faced.
"Yeah, and I didn't believe in Sasquatch once either, but here he is!" she said, slapping Biggie on the back. "No offense."
"None taken," Biggie replied.
Helen looked back and forth between the two of them, then down at the DVD, tapping it with her fingernail. What did she have to lose?
"What do you propose?" she asked Kate.
"Helen, you can't be serious!" Tesla butted in.
Magnus held up her hand to quiet him. Nikola sighed dramatically and made a little zipper motion with his fingers over his lips.
"I have a friend. She's…sensitive," Kate said sheepishly.
"A psychic, you mean?" Helen asked, playing along.
"Yeah…," Kate paused, reading Magnus' skepticism. "She's not a flake or anything, honest. She just…sees stuff, feels stuff other people can't. She doesn't know why. I'd like her to visit John. See if she can pick up on anything we haven't."
Magnus folded her arms over her chest, took a deep breath, and nodded. "Fine. Call your friend. We'll give it a go."
Kate smiled wildly. "All right!" She turned on her heel with Biggie in tow. "See, I told you she'd buy it," Magnus heard her saying as they hurried out into the hallway.
Tesla sauntered up to Magnus and put his arm around her shoulder. "Ghostbusters, Helen?"
"Desperate times, desperate measures, Nikola," she sighed. "Desperate measures, indeed," she muttered to herself.
Cynthia Groesbeck didn't look like a psychic. She looked like a model. Five foot ten, late twenties, with light brown hair down to her shoulders. She was dressed professionally in fashionable slacks and a light blue blouse and wasn't at all the kind of woman Helen Magnus would pick as one of Kate's friends.
"Where did you say you met her again?" Magnus asked.
"Karate class a few years back," Kate answered.
"Hmm," was all Magnus managed.
"Look, boss, I know you think this is a lame idea, but Cindy's not a scammer. Trust me. I should know."
Magnus turned to her. "And what have you told her about us? Our work? John?"
Kate shook her head, her dark locks bobbing. "Not much. Only that we were a scientific research institute and that one of our employees has been seeing things he can't explain. Hey, I know the drill; The more you tell them, the more they can put you on, but she's not…"
"A scammer," Magnus interrupted. "Yes, I know."
Kate and Magnus watched as Cindy wandered the library. Nikola and Will were bringing John to meet them there.
"There's a lot of energy in this place," Cindy commented, stopping and turning around.
Magnus turned and rolled her eyes at her younger companion.
Cindy smiled. "I know, it sounds cliché. But it's true. There's a tremendous amount of energy here. I don't necessarily mean paranormal. In fact…I can't exactly place what kind of energy it is. It's just, abnormal."
Kate grinned at Magnus. "Didn't tell her a word."
Magnus frowned.
"Dr. Magnus? Did I get that right?" Cindy asked, walking back to the two of them.
"Yes."
"I don't need to be a psychic to read people. I can tell you're skeptical about me, and I don't blame you," she said, pointing to herself, her hazel eyes shining. "This…gift…ability, whatever you want to call it, isn't something I asked for or talk to many people about, but if it helps people, then I don't think it's such a bad thing. That's all I want to do, help."
Magnus smiled at her. Her manservant was Big Foot, her boyfriend was Jack the Ripper, and her oldest friend was a former vampire. Honestly, who was she to judge?
"I appreciate that Ms. Groesbeck, and I apologize for any doubts you may have…sensed."
Cindy nodded. "Apology accepted."
The door to the library opened and Will Zimmerman, John Druitt, and Nikola Tesla walked in.
John was dressed in jeans and a loose fitting blue shirt that accentuated his eyes, Helen thought. He looked handsome, trim, and fit. Since his episode three days ago, Magnus had spent as much time with him as she could, not to run tests, just to be near him. Her presence grounded John, kept him settled. Today she had put back on the ring he'd given her. Kate had been right. She'd been hiding from him, scared of what he might turn back into. But if she loved him, and she did, this was an unknown they had to face together. "In sickness and in health," she mused. That was the promise she had been prepared to make so many years ago, and it was a vow she intended to keep now.
John turned and looked at Helen as he entered. She never failed to take his breath away. She could be dressed in her most expensive cocktail dress or nothing at all, make up perfect or covered in mud, her hair tossed back or in a pony tail. It didn't matter. She was the most beautiful woman in the world to him and always would be. Her mere presence calmed him.
Just as he thought this he caught a glint of light reflecting from her hand. She wore his ring. She hadn't last night when she'd come to visit him. They'd eaten dinner together, then talked for a while. It had become late, she was tired, so was he, so they laid together in his bed, just to rest, just to be near one another, when one thing led to another, and they made love.
How easily one thing led to another for them it seemed…
He slept, restfully, for the first time in weeks. All because of her.
Helen was introducing them to the psychic, the woman Kate had asked to bring in. He was dubious of her plan, but Miss Freelander wanted so much to help him. He didn't have the heart to refuse, and at this point, he had nothing to lose.
Cindy finished meeting with Will and Nikola then reached out to shake John's hand but froze, her brow furrowed.
"You're the one I'm here about, aren't you?" she asked.
John nodded. "I am."
She took his hand and held it, closing her eyes, her face in pain.
"You've seen darkness in your life…tremendous darkness."
John started to wrench his hand free, when she reached up and pulled him back.
"No, please," Cindy reassured him. "It's all right. There's no darkness in you now, although that's what you fear. You fear it will return."
John nodded. "Yes," was all he could manage.
"Come sit with me," she said.
She led John over to a small couch and sat next to him, holding his hand gently in hers. Helen, Will, Nikola, and Kate stood at a table a few feet away, watching.
Cindy took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She was silent for a long time, John thought. Or maybe it only seemed long. Could she really sense the evil that had been in him? Was that what was haunting him now?
"It wants to speak to you...It can only speak to you," she said, her eyes closed.
John looked up at Helen, unsure how to respond. "What?" Helen answered for him, stepping forward. "What wants to speak to him?"
"The shadow that haunts you. You're afraid of it, but I sense no hate, no evil, only…fear, confusion and…." She stopped suddenly, opening her eyes, realization dawning. "She's lost," she told him.
Helen's heart began pounding in her chest.
She? It was impossible… Helen thought.
Helen looked at John and he at her, both of them thinking the same thing, both of them knowing what they were thinking was impossible. John looked back at Cindy, gripping her hand tight.
"Who? Who's lost? Who is trying to speak to me? Tell me."
Cindy closed her eyes again, concentrating, and then nodded.
"The girl... Ashley," she answered him.
(To be continued)